Diablo III Double XP Weekend Beginning Soon After Hotfix And Exploit Problems

In response to both a delay in rolling out hotfixes after the most recent patch and as an answer to an exploit that allowed players to quickly rack up Legendary Gems, a Double XP weekend will be coming to Diablo III starting on Friday. This’ll be the perfect time to level up your Necromancer if you recently purchased the newest DLC for the game, though some players might have a sour attitude towards the Necromancer given its involvement with the exploit that’s being addressed here.

Hotfixes that were scheduled to be rolled out last week put in place to buff the Grace of Inarius and Bones of Rathma sets, but due to some technical issues, it took the fixes a bit longer than anticipated to be applied. During the initial discussion about providing the buffs, it was announced on the Diablo III forums that the hotfixes would be delayed and that a Double XP opportunity might come in the future after the hotfix had been deployed.

“Additionally, by way of apology, we are looking into providing a Double XP buff at some point after the fix goes out,” a community manager on the forums wrote. “Although we generally don’t provide such buffs (in order to discourage people from only playing when a buff is active), we feel like the unusual circumstances in this case warrant an exception.”

Some of the unusual circumstances in question here include the use of an exploit that involved both the Necromancer and the Demon Hunter working together to clear Greater Nephalem Rifts with ease. By using the Demon Hunter’s Grim Reaper Rune for the Marked for Death ability with the Necromancer’s Frailty ability, it allowed for some insanely quick clears and crazy farming potential.

If you’re planning on trying the exploit yourself now, you’ve missed your window as it’s already been fixed. The Double XP weekend is the apology to players for the exploit, but not everyone’s pleased with the punishment exploiters are receiving.

“Lastly, we will be rolling back Legendary Gem levels to the maximum gem level that would have been legitimately achievable prior to the patch going live,” a comment read later on in the thread. “As with all previous exploits, any additional actions we may take will not be discussed outside of our staff and offending individuals.”

Some players feel slighted that the exploiters are being allowed to keep some of their gems that they earned for the exploit, and others aren’t convinced that the “additional actions” will be enough to be satisfactory.

The Double XP weekend will begin on July 14 and will end on July 17.